


wasteland, baby!

by OptimisticLady



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Doctor Who Fusion, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Gen, Inspired by Mad Max Series (Movies), Mad Max AU, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Mad Max: Fury Road, Postmodernism, Twelveclara, fury road - Freeform, whouffle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28342182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OptimisticLady/pseuds/OptimisticLady
Summary: Mad Max Fury Road AU. He’s fleeing a war. She just wants to go home. In the dried up wastelands of what was once the Earth, a lonesome traveller known as The Doctor manages to pick up a passenger, Ozzie. Together they must face the Fury Road or perish at the hands of a clan that’s more machine than man.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Missy, Twelfth Doctor/River Song, Twelfth Doctor/The Master
Kudos: 12





	1. Prologue: The Shepherd's Boy

_ “There’s this emperor and he asks the shepherd’s boy how many seconds in eternity…” _

Those old legs of his weren’t going to fail him yet; not now, anyway.

Protective gear on. Shades on. Guitar strapped to his back. He had it all. He’s got it all with him.

_ “And the shepherd’s boy says, ‘There’s this mountain of pure diamond. It takes an hour to climb it and an hour to go around it…’” _

Ducking down as he skids around a corner of the tunnel, he realises he’s just missed a shot to the head. Does he even have a gun? Probably not. That’ll come later when he’s in the car and actually making a getaway.

_ “‘And every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain…’” _

Out of the dark tunnel and into the light! Too bright, too bright… thank goodness for those shades, right?

_ “‘And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.’” _

He can see it - her - that absolute stunning beauty that was going to save his life… No time for doors-

_ “You may think that’s a hell of a long time.” _

As he dived through the window of his rusty (yet still reliable and deep blue) Ford Thunderbird, he had a moment of panic - is the guitar okay?! A quick reach behind told him - yes, it was absolutely  _ fine. _ He gets into an upright position, checks the fuel gauge.

Yeah, that’s enough to last a couple of days - or at least, until the next town.

_ “Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.” _

The Doctor starts up the engine, and with a brief dust kick up drives off at full speed and out of the camp, never looking back.


	2. Chapter 1: Running From The Raven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ozzie flags down someone to hitchhike from.

The heat was scorching, and it made her regret not waiting for someone to give her a ride. No matter: she had things to do, people to see, and places to go. All that mattered was the destination point. It didn’t matter how she got there, as long as she didn’t bloody die along the way.

Ozzie pulled her white (now dirty) scarf out of her knapsack and draped it around her head and neck, over her shoulders, as a means of keeping the worst of the sun off of her. The wind was beginning to pick up a bit, so she pulled her goggles up over her eyes to protect them from the sand. Her mouth would be fine for now, unless the breeze got  _ really _ bad.

Her water bottle was getting too light now, for something that could holw a gallon. It had been a couple of days since the last town now, and she had been carefully rationing water. Holding it in her mouth for as long as possible before even swallowing it. It kept up the illusion that she was more hydrated than she actually was in this blistering wasteland.

Slinging the knapsack back over her shoulders, Ozzie trudged on.

All she knew was that she had to keep heading East. She didn’t have a clue about the mileage - not without a vehicle of some kind - but remembered that by car it would take half the time than on foot. So she was definitely in for a ride and a half, doing this long old trek to where her friends were.

In all honesty, it was a miracle she’d even found out where they were after their rather horrific separation. How she ended up on the other side of the Wasteland had  _ initially _ been a mystery to her, until she found out that she’d been picked up by good people who wanted to help. They’d been reluctant to let her go, and she’d been ever more reluctant to leave them.

But she needed to find home again, wherever the hell that was.

Sighing, Ozzie took a swig of water in her mouth and held it there for a few seconds, swilling it around and swallowing. She kept hold of the water bottle tightly in her sweaty palm; she was at least a few hours away from a pit stop she was told would have water. It meant she could be a little more wasteful with it. A five hour trek with just under a quarter of a gallon of water left? Easy stuff. The sun would be going down in four hours anyway.

It was going to be cooler, but also a tad more dangerous.

The idea of trekking in the dark on her own unnerved Ozzie, what with the rumours and stories of the tribe that were only half human. The other half? Well…

Ozzie shuddered at the thought of what their other half was.

Either way - she could hold her own. She had a revolver in a holster on her hip, and a folded up shotgun and a knife in her knapsack. She had ammo scattered across all the pockets in her jacket for an easy find, but as to what she would find? Who knew. Sometimes it would be shotgun pellets, sometimes she might find rounds that were the wrong size for her revolver. On a lucky day - on a good day - she would find the right size ammo when she needed to refill quickly.

Usually she just hid if she wasn’t as lucky. Waste no time staring in the face of death, eh? Not when you could have the chance to outrun it eventually.

Thinking about all the times she’d escaped certain death; that was when she heard it.

That beautiful, low rumbling and speeding sound of a car.

Ozzie pulled her goggles down. She had a pair of binoculars around her neck and she immediately put her eyes to them, scanning the horizon all around her to find the source and then-

There! Coming from the West!

A blue speck on the horizon, zooming ever closer to her.

She put down the binoculars and grinned for the first time in  _ weeks. _ This was the first car she’d heard in days since hers went completely bust. If whoever was driving was friendly enough she could probably hitchhike - an idea that she became uncertain about when she could see the vehicle swerving to and fro.

Didn’t matter. She waved with both arms, jumping up and down.

She had no idea what the make of the car was, only that it was blue and  _ very _ fast. It looked like whoever was driving was clearly in a hurry despite the fact there wasn’t anything coming up behind it.

The person behind the wheel stuck their head out of the window as they came closer.

“What the bloody hell are you doing?! Jumping up and down like a maniac?!” It was a man. A very angry man. He had some sort of accent too - Ozzie couldn’t put her finger on it, but it had a funny cadence to it. What was the name of it? It was a regional one... 

The man slowed down and stopped next to her. He was probably in his sixties, grey, looked lanky from how he was sitting, and by  _ god _ were those the biggest pair of eyebrows she’d ever seen. Ozzie would have laughed were it not the fact he was absolutely fuming at her behind the pair of shades he was wearing.

“Well?” Impatient man too, at that.

Ozzie frowned. “Just trying to get your attention - you’ve got the first car I’ve heard for  _ days! _ ”

“What if I wasn’t someone very nice?”

“You would have shot me then, wouldn’t ya?” She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at me. “ _ Or _ if you had come up guns a-blazing, I would have run for it. Hid.”

He harrumphed then killed the engine. “Good head on that tiny pair of shoulders. Okay, what if I’m just  _ pretending _ to be nice, and I’m actually one of those bad guys who’s gonna take you somewhere quiet and kill you?”

“Clearly you’re not,” she laughed. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have told me that!”

“I could be bluffing,” he replied with an air of impertinence. He pulled the shades up to rest on top of his head. Oh yes, he was definitely fuming in the eyes, but something about them said  _ kindness  _ to her.

“You’re not though.”

He sighed deeply, dramatically. “Alright,  _ fine. _ You got me!” He held his hands up in surrender. “I’m  _ not a bad guy! _ ”

Ozzie eyed him curiously. Of course he wasn’t a bad guy, but that wasn’t going to stop her from having a bit of fun.

“What if  _ I’m _ a bad guy and I’m about to take you hostage?”

“Clearly you’re not, otherwise you wouldn’t have told me that.”

He smirked. “I could be bluffing.”

She had to hold back a smirk too. “Could I have a ride, please?”

“Where to?”

“East. Dunno where. Just… East.”

He eyed her suspiciously. “What’s East?”

“Home.”

The man thought about it for a moment.

“Get in.”

So she did. Ozzie went around to the passenger door, taking off her knapsack and scarf, electing to chuck it in the back seat before she actually got into the passenger seat. Weirdly enough, this was a car that still had seatbelts intact. She hadn’t seen one of those for a while.

The minute she’d shut the door, he was zooming off again.

“Woah, easy there mate!” she chuckled nervously. “What’s your rush?”

“Never you mind,” he snapped back at her.

“What’s your name? If we’re gonna be here for a while together-”

“Define ‘a while?’”

Stumped, Ozzie struggled to come up with a good answer. “I - well… um… well, until I know we’re there. I know there’s a shoreline. That’s about it.”

He groaned. “Seriously? You just hopped in here hoping I’d take you all the way to the Eastern Shore? That’s weeks away still! And you were planning to go there on foot?”

“I had no choice. Car was busted beyond repair, and the people I was with didn’t have a spare.”

He huffed. Goodness, he really was in a mood. Ozzie wondered if she’d caught him on a bad day or if he was like this all the time.

“What’s your name?” she then asked him once the silence between them got a little too uncomfortable.

“Never you mind,” he repeated. “My name’s boring. Bit generic. No point you knowing.”

“But if we’re going to be together for a few weeks…”

“ _ Fine. _ Just… call me Doctor. The Doctor. Suits me well enough.”

“Were you a doctor?”

“I was, once, before all this happened…” he muttered. There was something about the way he said it so quietly that Ozzie didn’t want to press further. Either way - he changed the subject anyway. “What’s your name?”

“I go by Ozzie,” she replied with a shrug. “Names are a weird thing nowadays, aren’t they?”

“Got that right. Maybe I’ll think you’re clever again.”

Ozzie rolled her eyes and folded her arms in a bit of a sulk.

“There’s a stop coming up shortly - I need to fill up my bottle.”

“Yeah, yeah…” The Doctor was far too grumbly for her liking.

This was going to be a tough few weeks alongside him - if he actually kept her around for that long and didn’t dump her at the next town. Ozzie wasn’t sure what the odds were of him doing that, but she knew that she didn’t like the odds much at all. Oh well, better to take her chances with a stoic, grumpy grandad than whatever came at night in the Wasteland.


End file.
